Nicolas Winding Refn bumped breakfast TV up a gear when he described film violence as "a bit like fucking" live on BBC One on Monday.

The Danish director, who was speaking about the violence in his LA crime thriller Drive, was interrupted by BBC Breakfast host Bill Turnbull and asked to "try and make the point without using that word". Carey Mulligan, who stars in the film, was sat next to the director and grimaced at his choice of language.

"Violence is very much like sexual build-up," Refn continued. "It's all about what you put into it, because violence in itself in a movie is an illusion. It's unbelievable – you [the audience] know it. But your job is to make it believable and you only do that with the build-up."

Drive – a glossy 80s pastiche that stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver – has no sex scenes, but contains explicit violence. In a video interview with the Guardian at this year's Cannes film festival, the director said that part of the film's allure was the cars. "The sexuality of speed is intoxicating," he said. "I have a fetish for the sensibility of corners and linear lines. The beauty of the machinery itself."

After the BBC Breakfast broadcast the corporation said: "Unfortunately a guest used a swear word during a live interview. Bill Turnbull immediately challenged his language and both presenters apologised to viewers. There was a further apology at the end of the programme. We are sorry if anyone was offended." Section 5.4.22 of the BBC's editorial guidelines states the broadcaster "must not include the strongest language before the watershed", which begins at 9pm.